Crabapple tree named ‘JFS-KW5’

ABSTRACT

A variety of crabapple which combines purple foliage color, deeply lobed ornamental vigorous growth leaves, bright reddish flowers, excellent form and foliage density, and excellent resistance to the diseases fireblight and scab.

Latin name of the genus and species of the plant claimed: Malus.

Variety denomination: ‘JFS-KW5’.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In 1990, I began a program of crabapple cultivar development. In thisprogram, I obtained select seed by both hybridizing and picking openpollinated seed off superior parent trees which are located neardesirable pollinators. In 1994, I picked seed from a Malus transitoria‘Schmidtcutleaf’ (unpatented) tree growing in the J. Frank Schmidt & SonCo. nursery arboretum in Boring, Oreg. I directed the planting of thisseed in a cultivated area, and more specifically in the nurserypropagation seedbeds located in Boring, Oreg. During the followingsummer, I noticed that among the hundreds of green leafed seedlings,three purple leafed trees were growing. I planted all the seedlings fromthis seed lot out into rows and began a systematic evaluation of them.Through this evaluation process, I selected my cultivar ‘JFS-KW5’ as asingle plant and I discovered that it was superior in many ways to otherseedlings in the nursery row. I first selected it because of its darkpurple foliage color and apparent disease resistance. As it grew older,I discovered that it possessed attractive flowers and fruit. Overseveral years, I evaluated its resistance to the common crabapplediseases fireblight and apple scab. I found that my cultivar is highlyresistant to both. Further observation proved that the ‘JFS-KW5’ varietyhas superior features which set it apart from other selections underobservation as well as from all other existing crabapple cultivars thatare in nursery production. I have directed the propagation of mycultivar by chip budding in test plots on Malus ‘EMLA 111’ (unpatented)understock, beginning in 1997. This asexual propagation was accomplishedin Canby, Oreg. Observation of the resulting propagated plants has shownthat the characteristics are firmly fixed. Trees propagated on thisunderstock have been identical to the original parent in every mannerthat has been observed.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This new cultivar possesses a unique combination of characteristics inthat it combines greyed-purple summer foliage color, a deeply lobedornamental leaf except for early leaves which tend to be entire, theseearly leaves appear with the flowers or shortly thereafter, brightreddish flowers, excellent form and foliage density, and excellentresistance to the diseases fireblight and scab.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The accompanying illustrations show typical fruit and leaf specimens ofthis new crabapple variety.

The colors of an illustration of this type may vary with lightingconditions and, therefore, color characteristics of this new varietyshould be determined with reference to the observations describedherein, rather than from these illustrations alone.

FIG. 1 shows two year old trees growing from chip bud propagation.‘JFS-KW5’ is on the left; its seed parent ‘Schmidtcutleaf’ is on theright.

FIG. 2 shows ‘JFS-KW5’ leaves in summer color.

FIG. 3 shows ‘JFS-KW5’ leaves with some leaves in fall color.

FIG. 4 shows ‘JFS-KW5’ fruit in early October.

FIG. 5 shows a trunk of a two year old ‘JFS-KW5’ tree grown from chipbudding, showing trunk color and lenticels.

FIG. 6 shows a newly opened flower on a ‘JWS-KW5’ tree and buds,together with several early growth leaves.

FIG. 7 shows two three-year-old ‘JFW-KW5’ trees, obtained by chipbudding, in full flower.

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description of the ‘JFS-KW5’ variety is based onobservations of the original tree and of two and three year oldasexually reproduced progeny. The observed progeny were trees which weregrowing in Canby, Oreg.

Scientific name: Malus ‘JFS-KW5’.

Parentage:

Seed parent.—Malus transitoria ‘Schmidtcutleaf’.

Pollen parent.—Unknown.

‘JFS-KW5’ is an open pollinated seedling of Malus transitoria‘Schmidtcutleaf’. The pollen parent is unknown, but the features of‘JFS-KW5’ lead me to believe that the pollen parent is an unknown purpleleafed Malus cultivar of garden hybrid origin, several of which weregrowing in the vicinity of the seed parent tree. As self-pollinatedMalus transitoria only produces green-leafed seedlings, the pollenparent is very probably a hybrid cultivar of which the dominantparentage is Malus×purpurea. The purple-leafed crabapple cultivarsgrowing near the seed parent tree were hybrid cultivars which largelydescended from Malus×purpurea. Thus, my new cultivar is probably of thehybrid origin Malus transitoria×Malus×purpurea.

Tree:

Overall shape.—Upright, spreading.

Height.—Original tree at about 7 years of age, about 3.6 meters high.

Width.—Original tree, about 2.7 meters spread.

Caliper.—Three year old trees, about 2.8 cm at about 20 cm above ground.This compares to about 2.4 cm for Malus transitoria ‘Schmidtcutleaf’growing in the same area.

Trunk.—Strong and straight under nursery growing conditions.

Trunk bark texture.—Smooth with prominent lenticels.

Trunk bark color.—Immature bark color: Grey-purple (RHS 187A). Maturebark color: Grey-purple (RHS 187A) to brown (RHS 200A) on three year oldtrunks. Lenticels: Oval to elongated oval, become stretched or elongatedin horizontal direction as trunk grows. They stretch until no longerapparent. Variable in size, one inch trunk has lenticels about 1 mm to1.5 mm vertical dimension and about 2 mm horizontal dimension.Orange-white (RHS 159A) in color.

Primary branches.—Upright spreading growth habit; forming an uprightspreading shaped crown, and developing good density of branches andfoliage at a young age.

Branch color.—Both immature and mature branches are grey-purple (RHS187A).

Branch lenticels.—Similar to trunk, horizontal in orientation, oval toelongated oval, orange-white (RHS 159A) in color.

Dormant buds.—Small, oval with acute tip, imbricate scales.

Internodes.—Moderately fast growing, average internode length is about26 mm on a one-year old shoot.

Hardiness.—Not determined, observed in Hardiness Zone 8.

Disease resistance.—Excellent resistance to fireblight and apple scab.

Leaves: Except as otherwise noted, observations are from twenty vigorousgrowth leaves.

Arrangement.—Alternate.

Texture.—Slightly textured.

Sheen.—Glossy.

Length.—About 6 cm to about 8 cm.

Width.—About 4 cm to about 6 cm.

Petioles.—About 20 mm long; about 1 mm thick; grey-purple (RHS187A) incolor.

Overall shape.—Early leaves which appear with blossoms tend to be ovalto ovate and entire with finely serrate margins although some of theseearly leaves may have one or more lobes. Vigorous growth leaves, thosewhich appear after the blossoms have fallen, are elongated with pointedlobes; generally five lobed, with a pair of basal lobes, a pair ofdistal lobes, and a tip lobe. Basal lobes are typically cut one-half ofthe way to the central vein. Distal lobes are typically cutapproximately one-third of the way to the central vein.

Margin.—Finely serrate.

Tip.—Narrowly acute.

Base.—Rounded to broadly acute.

Stipules.—Typically two per leaf, about 6 to 10 mm long to about 2 to 3mm wide, color similar to leaf color.

Summer leaf color.—Upper leaf surface: Greyed-purple (RHS 187A to 185A).Lower leaf surface: Greyed-purple (RHS 183B). Vein: Greyed-purple (RHS185A to 187A).

Fall leaf color.—Red (RHS 43A) to grey-red (RHS 181A).

Pubescence.—Top of leaf is glabrous except for a few hairs on the veins.Lower surface of leaf is sparsely pubsecent, mostly on the veins.

Persistence.—Tree is deciduous.

Flowers:

Shape.—Symmetrical, rounded, slightly cupped.

Size.—Approximately 30 mm in diameter.

Color.—Unopened bud: About 3 to 4 mm long and 1.5-2 mm wide (based uponobservations of twenty typical buds). Red in color like RHS 53B. Openedflower: Red-purple (RHS 63A) when first open. Flowers fade over time,with edges of petal becoming red-purple (RHS 64C) and center of petalbecoming like red-purple (RHS 65B). Pedicel and hypanthium arered-purple (RHS 57A).

Petals.—Five petals per flower.

Sepals.—Five sepals per flower, red-purple (RHS 59A).

Stamen.—About fifteen to twenty stamens, length like pistil, about 9 to12 mm long, arranged concentrically around pistil.

Anthers.—Yellow-orange (RHS 20B).

Pistil.—Compound, five branched, length about 9 mm to 12 mm. Ovaryinferior, five carpels.

Pubescence.—Flower parts are all glabrous except sepals which areglabrous on the outside with a densely pubescent inner surface, and thepedicel which is lightly pubescent.

Pollen.—Yellow-orange (RHS 20B).

Flowering date.—In Canby, Oreg. in 2001, first bloom April 19^(th), peakbloom April 25^(th), last bloom May 3^(rd).

Fruit: Observations are from a sampling of typical fruit.

Size.—Typical fruit about 8 mm to about 10 mm.

Shape.—Round, pome, fleshy.

Cavity.—None.

Basin.—None.

Skin.—Smooth.

Lenticels.—None observed.

Color.—Red (RHS 46A).

Seeds.—Typically 5 per fruit, ovoid with flattened sides, about 3 mmlong and about 2 mm wide; smooth surface, greyed-orange (RHS 176A) incolor.

Fruit production.—Prolific.

Usage.—Ornamental.

Comparison to Other Varieties

Comparison to seed parent, ‘Schmidtcutleaf’ Feature ‘JFS-KW5’‘Schmidtcutleaf’ Flower color: Red-purple 63A to White 155D 64C and 65BLeaf color, summer, Upper surface: Greyed-purple 187A Green 137A to 185ALower surface: Greyed-purple 183B Yellow-green 146A Fruit: Red 46AYellow-orange 15B

Comparison to Other Common Purple Leafed Crabapples

The most similar appearing purple leafed crabapple cultivars are Malus‘Prairifire’ (unpatented) and Malus ‘Purple Prince’, U.S. Plant Pat. No.8,478. My new cultivar can be easily distinguished from these others inthat my cultivar has vigorous growth leaves that are typically fivelobed. ‘Prairifire’ and ‘Purple Prince’ have leaves that are typicallyentire (no lobes) or occasionally two lobed.

I claim:
 1. A new and distinct variety of crabapple tree, substantiallyas herein shown and described.